I have been reading a new book that is both informing and challenging me to think about the way I go about my work. The book is The New Copernicans by David John Seel, Jr. The subtitle tells you about the book: Millennials and the Survival of the Church. Seel offers a sociological look at the cohort called millennial---roughly people born between 1980 and 2000. I have read some general things about the various generations, from the Boomers to today. But Seel has done his homework and provides me with some great information and trenchant analysis of what it means.
Although he is most interested in what evangelical churches can do to respond creatively to the millennials, I am more broadly interested in the material. For one thing, most of the students currently in my class are the tail-enders of that generation. And my own two girls stand at the headwaters of that same group. Reading this material helps me be very careful of my assumptions about young people, etc.
One of the things Seel offers is some great description of this group of young adults. In one case he suggests there are seven characteristics of this generation. I don’t want to detail them all here, but I would like to focus on one. Seel says that millennials are very aware of “their experience of cross-pressured beliefs.” He continues his observation with these words: “This is the result of living in a hyperpluralistic world: the ongoing sense of dissonance that there are other options to one’s belief and that one is caught between an immanent life and a transcendent longing.” Basically, he tells me it is not as easy to grow up assuming the way one believes is the way everyone believes. I think this is true.
He is able to narrate his analysis with clarity. For example, he says, “The innocence of naïve belief is gone, dashed on the rocks of diversity---diversity of options for belief and diversity of believers.” He pushes it even further by noting most folks feel “the contingent nature of our own convictions.” The means I can be clear about my beliefs, but recognize there are other options for believing. And it means there is a kind of unpredictability and randomness to what I believe. For example, if I were not born when and where I was, it is likely my belief would be something else.
One obvious outcome for churches who take Seel’s analysis seriously is churches need to be more vulnerable and less arrogant about their beliefs and doctrines. I think he is absolutely correct when he recognizes we need to provide places where folks can deal with their vulnerabilities and doubts. Both are key to being human. He has a great sentence challenging churches. “There is something terribly wrong with our churches when we cannot be safe places for unsafe questions, when we have to consistently paper over the cracks in our broken hearts on Sunday morning.”
From this he moves to observe “there is a kind of advanced discipleship graduate school embraced by few known as the ‘dark night of the soul.’ It is less a spiritual crisis than a thorough spiritual refining.” The example he cites is Mother Teresa, who surely went through this graduate discipleship in Calcutta, India. I love the way Seel can understate things. About Mother Teresa and this graduate school of the “dark night” he says, “Persons who have been through this fire are changed.” For sure!
His analysis follows. For people like Mother Teresa (and for millennials, he will claim, and for us who work with millennials), “Connection and love predominate.” It is not primarily about theology and doctrine. It is about experience, doubt, love and becoming connected. People who walk this path become what Seel calls, “broken world people.” I think Seel is correct when he suggests people who have not been broken won’t make good connections with millennial. We can’t be authentic enough to speak to their condition. He then poses a question to us.
“Do you walk with a limp?” What a great way to frame the question! To walk with a limp means you are vulnerable. It means you are not absolutely sure about your faith and beliefs, even if you are deeply convicted and committed. We need the experience to back up the way we talk and live our spiritual journey. Millennials aren’t looking for us to give them answers, so much as to share our journey and make connection. We will need to listen more than we talk.
Do I walk with a limp? That is a great question to frame my approach to teaching and whatever kind of ministry I am doing. I am certainly not perfect. That means I’m human. I have been hurt and helped. There is much about millennials with which I resonate. But I am not one of them. I do walk with a limp. It is important not to pretend I don’t limp. Sometimes I need to realize my limp may not be literal, as with a sore leg.
I limp. It is the way to be vulnerable in order to offer value to someone.
Although he is most interested in what evangelical churches can do to respond creatively to the millennials, I am more broadly interested in the material. For one thing, most of the students currently in my class are the tail-enders of that generation. And my own two girls stand at the headwaters of that same group. Reading this material helps me be very careful of my assumptions about young people, etc.
One of the things Seel offers is some great description of this group of young adults. In one case he suggests there are seven characteristics of this generation. I don’t want to detail them all here, but I would like to focus on one. Seel says that millennials are very aware of “their experience of cross-pressured beliefs.” He continues his observation with these words: “This is the result of living in a hyperpluralistic world: the ongoing sense of dissonance that there are other options to one’s belief and that one is caught between an immanent life and a transcendent longing.” Basically, he tells me it is not as easy to grow up assuming the way one believes is the way everyone believes. I think this is true.
He is able to narrate his analysis with clarity. For example, he says, “The innocence of naïve belief is gone, dashed on the rocks of diversity---diversity of options for belief and diversity of believers.” He pushes it even further by noting most folks feel “the contingent nature of our own convictions.” The means I can be clear about my beliefs, but recognize there are other options for believing. And it means there is a kind of unpredictability and randomness to what I believe. For example, if I were not born when and where I was, it is likely my belief would be something else.
One obvious outcome for churches who take Seel’s analysis seriously is churches need to be more vulnerable and less arrogant about their beliefs and doctrines. I think he is absolutely correct when he recognizes we need to provide places where folks can deal with their vulnerabilities and doubts. Both are key to being human. He has a great sentence challenging churches. “There is something terribly wrong with our churches when we cannot be safe places for unsafe questions, when we have to consistently paper over the cracks in our broken hearts on Sunday morning.”
From this he moves to observe “there is a kind of advanced discipleship graduate school embraced by few known as the ‘dark night of the soul.’ It is less a spiritual crisis than a thorough spiritual refining.” The example he cites is Mother Teresa, who surely went through this graduate discipleship in Calcutta, India. I love the way Seel can understate things. About Mother Teresa and this graduate school of the “dark night” he says, “Persons who have been through this fire are changed.” For sure!
His analysis follows. For people like Mother Teresa (and for millennials, he will claim, and for us who work with millennials), “Connection and love predominate.” It is not primarily about theology and doctrine. It is about experience, doubt, love and becoming connected. People who walk this path become what Seel calls, “broken world people.” I think Seel is correct when he suggests people who have not been broken won’t make good connections with millennial. We can’t be authentic enough to speak to their condition. He then poses a question to us.
“Do you walk with a limp?” What a great way to frame the question! To walk with a limp means you are vulnerable. It means you are not absolutely sure about your faith and beliefs, even if you are deeply convicted and committed. We need the experience to back up the way we talk and live our spiritual journey. Millennials aren’t looking for us to give them answers, so much as to share our journey and make connection. We will need to listen more than we talk.
Do I walk with a limp? That is a great question to frame my approach to teaching and whatever kind of ministry I am doing. I am certainly not perfect. That means I’m human. I have been hurt and helped. There is much about millennials with which I resonate. But I am not one of them. I do walk with a limp. It is important not to pretend I don’t limp. Sometimes I need to realize my limp may not be literal, as with a sore leg.
I limp. It is the way to be vulnerable in order to offer value to someone.
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